That’s the startling reality facing the Brazilian city of Natal, which is set to host Fight Night 38 on March 23rd. On Tuesday, it was reported that Luiz de Franca, a 3-0 welterweight training out of Kimura Nova Uniao, was shot to death inside a gym on Monday morning. The main suspect? A police lieutenant, of all people, who used to train at the Alta Performance gym until he was thrown for being “too violent” some 15 days before Franca’s murder. Said Franca’s teammate and UFC middleweight Rafael Natal:

It was a cowardly act. Really sad to see a guy full of life, that always helped everybody, die like that. I want justice.

Wanderlei Silva, who had trained with Franca in early 2012, also shared his condolences, stating via his Facebook, “I’m really sad. Luiz de Franca, who trained with us in Las Vegas for almost a year, was brutally murdered this Monday morning in Natal. He was only 25 and never got himself in trouble. He was a good kid.”

Police colonel Lenildo Sena told reporters that the crime was caught on tape, but they have yet to determine if it was the cop, who had a history of depression (also according to Sena), who killed the 25-year-old Franca.

As if the horrific and inexplicable murder of one human being wasn’t enough, word broke earlier today that Jungle Fight lightweight Guilherme Matos Rodrigues had died on the operating table shortly after being shot in Natal last night as well. Details on his case are after the jump.

(And to think, if the guy on the left had won, we’d have a new outright champion by now. Photo via MMAFighting.)

October 1st will mark the two year anniversary (?) of the last time we saw bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz defend his title in the octagon. Multiple ACL tears and a rejected cadaver ligament transplant have seen the once dominant champion sidelined ever since his 2011 battle with now flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson. As such, the bantamweight division has been stuck in a perpetual state of limbo, frustrating fans, fighters and most importantly, Dominick Cruz.

But perhaps the only person more frustrated by Cruz’s arduous road to recovery than the champ himself is interim title holder Renan Barao, who recently became the first fighter in UFC history to defend said title twice (via a second round KO of Eddie Wineland at UFC 165). Actually, Barao is the first fighter in UFC history to ever defend an interim belt. Unfortunately, the Brazilian isn’t seeing many benefits of being the closest thing to a champion his division has seen in a dog’s age.

That’s at least, according to Nova Uniao head trainer Andre Pederneiras, who recently appeared on MMAJunkie radio to discuss Barao’s current predicament:

He’s very frustrated because he needs to make money. So many sponsors here in Brazil are not sponsoring him because he’s not the real champion from the UFC. He’s the interim champion. He’s losing money every day.

Sometimes when you watch dominant fighters like Anderson Silva, Fedor Emelianenko and Georges St-Pierre compete, you forget that they’ve all tasted defeat. Jose Aldo is another MMA wrecking machine who, although maybe isn’t as far along in his career as the former list, falls under the same category.

If you haven’t seen the fight that gave him his lone blemish on his record, check out part one above and part two below. Paralleling Chael Sonnen’s masterful performance against Anderson Silva at UFC 117 (minus the PEDs), Aldo controlled opponent Luis Azevedo for the majority of the Jungle Fight 5 bout, but the Nova Uniao fighter made a rookie mistake on the ground, giving up his back and just like that he was now a loser.

He bounced back from the loss, earned his black belt (although you wouldn’t know it considering he hasn’t won by submission since) and hasn’t lost or looked back at the fight with Azevedo since.

We’ve compiled some of Aldo’s greatest performances for you to watch in anticipation of his fight with Manny "I’m Fedor, bro" Gamburyan tomorrow night at WEC 51.